Basket Ball / Sports

Bucks finish off shorthanded Bulls in Game 5, advance to face Celtics in second round

The Milwaukee Bucks took care of business on Wednesday.

The defending NBA champions made sure not to prolong their first-round series and finished off the short-handed Chicago Bulls with a 116-100 victory in Game 5 at Fiserv Forum.

The best-of-7 matchup began inauspiciously for Milwaukee with a lackluster performance in Game 1 and then a 114-110 defeat in Game 2. Despite a knee injury to star Khris Middleton that will keep him out at least two weeks, the Bucks looked much crisper in winning three straight, including two in Chicago, to eliminate the Bulls.

“We’ve been talking about the depth of the roster, the quality of the roster, a lot this season,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Other guys have gotten opportunities and played well. And our defense has tightened up and we’ve leaned hard on that these three games.

“But we’ve got depth, we’ve got a good group. We miss Khris, I don’t think anyone underestimates how important and how effective he is for us. While we don’t have him, we got to be our best up and down the roster.”

Third-seeded Milwaukee will face the second-seeded Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Celtics, who swept the Brooklyn Nets in the first round, have home-court advantage and will host the first two games of the series.

Chicago wasn’t expected to give Milwaukee much of a challenge given the 3-1 series deficit and the absences of key guards Zach LaVine (health and safety protocol) and Alex Caruso (concussion protocol).

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 33 points, with 32 coming in the first three quarters as the Bucks pulled away early and never allowed the Bulls to really threaten.

“Sometimes I got to score the ball,” Antetokounmpo said. “But in my head I don’t think about, ‘Hey, I got to score the ball. Khris is down, I got to score 40.’

It’s kind of the opposite. It’s like, ‘Khris is down now, we got to get 30-40 points from somebody else.’ So you got to move the ball.”

Pat Connaughton was …

Basket Ball / Sports

Chicago Bulls cruise past Hornets as Lonzo Ball pips his brother

Lonzo Ball has faced his brother LaMelo three times in the NBA, winning twice. That’s the only thing that matters to him.

”I play to win. I’m still the big brother at the end of the day,” Lonzo Ball said, ”and I got to stack my wins.”

The Chicago Bulls took the latest battle of the Ball brothers, riding a stellar performance by Nikola Vucevic to a 133-119 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.

Chicago shot a season-high 59.6% from the field and had five players score in double figures. Vucevic had a season-best 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points, and Zach LaVine, a game-time decision because of an illness, finished with 25.

With patriarch LaVar Ball watching and wearing a black hat that read ”I Told You So,” Lonzo Ball helped the Bulls get back on track after dropping three of four. He had 16 points and eight assists, and LaMelo Ball had 18 points and 13 assists.

”I mean we’ve been talking about the NBA since we were little boys,” LaMelo said. ”Just going out there and playing against him, always a dream come true, for real.”

The United Center crowd of 21,366 roared every time the Ball brothers matched up early on. But there was little sign from Lonzo or LaMelo that they were guarding someone they’d guarded since they were kids.

”Obviously we are brothers and it’s all love off the court,” Lonzo Ball said. ”But on the court, like I said, he got a job he got to do, I got a job I got to do.”

Terry Rozier scored 31 points and Gordon Hayward had 22 for the Hornets, who dropped to 0-2 on their four-game trip.

”Disappointed tonight in our defense,” Charlotte coach James Borrego said. ”We just got to correct it.”

Charlotte trimmed a 23-point deficit down to four on Hayward’s cutting layup with 7:31 left, but Chicago responded with a 9-0 run.

Vucevic sparked the decisive stretch with a layup. The 6-foot-10 center also …